Health Cruzade in Brazil

julho 10, 2022

Specially trained and equipped groups fight to eradicate malaria in huge South American Republic.

SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE, the United States of Brazil may attain the position that the United States of America occupied at the beginning of the century: the bread basket and meat provisioner of the world. This probably will not surprise the Brazilians, a warm and courteous people who have an unshakable belief in the inevitableness of their nation's shining destiny. And they have good reasons for their optimism. Today, with only 4% of the total area under cultivation and a majority of the republic's 64 million popula tion still living along a narrow 100 mile wide strip adjacent to the nation's 4,000 mile Atlantic Ocean coastline, Brazil is first in world coffee production, second in cocoa, third in sugar cane, fourth in the number of livestock and fifth in cotton production. However, two obstacles have held back the nation's potential and settlement of much of the vast interior. They are a lack of adequate transportation-and malaria, the scourge of mankind since earliest recorded history.

It is quite likely that malaria was commonplace in Brazil when Admiral Pedro Alvares Cabral claimed the land for Portugal in 1500. Its incidence was further increased by the arrival of slave labor from Africa during the 18th Century, some of whom had the dreaded disease. It was years later before the only real remedy for strength-robbing malaria was found, quinine processed from Peru's cinchona plant. But even then, the drug was only available in limited quantities.

The first real efforts to control the spread of malaria in Brazil date back to the early 1930's when the United States of America and the United States of Brazil cooperated in attempts to stamp out the scourge in the Northeastern States. The results of the many programs carried out there since then have shown that malaria can be controlled. Scientific research and chemical discoveries during the last few years have now given mankind the knowledge, the medicines and the insecti cides needed to eradicate malaria completely.

Only 60 species of mosquitoes carry the disease. These insects contract malaria- which is present in tiny parasites that live in the bloodstream of infected human beings when feeding; then the mosquitoes transmit it to others. Therefore, if it is possible to eliminate or at least keep the malarial parasites in the bloodstream at a low level, present victims of malaria will not be a source of infection for others.

Just as goiter is prevented by putting iodides in table salt, unnoticeable but protective dosages of chloroquine can be put in table salt. While this drug does not cure all forms of malaria, it does prevent noticeable illnesses and keeps the number of malarial parasites found in the bloodstream so low that mosquitoes are unlikely to pick up and transmit the disease. In this way it can be kept relatively dormant in a person for four years, after which time the malaria infection usually disappears entirely.

The small mosquito bloats to several times its own weight while feeding. As a result it can only fly short distances before it must take a rest. A mosquito landing on a DDT-surfaced wall or ceiling is dead in a matter of seconds. And with it, of course, any malarial parasites it might be carrying.

Brazil began its present ten-year campaign for the Eradication of Malaria in 1958. It is an international, intrastate undertaking with the Brazilian government's Ministry of Health, several Brazilian states and the International Coopera tion Administration of the United States of America working together. Brazil will be in complete charge of the program with the various states raising the funds and recruiting the personnel necessary to carry the fight across the country. The people of the United States of America will pay for and supply the imported equipment, materials and certain con sulting services as requested.

The Ministry of Health has divided the country into zones Amazonas, Para, Maranhao, Ceara, Pernambuco, Mato Grosso, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Parana Where malaria is present in an area, a doctor, engineer and an inspector direct a number of DDT spray teams except in the Amazon area where, due to the transportation difficulties, the chloroquine salt method will be relied upon. Six-man teams do the actual canvassing, spraying and recording of the dwellings. In the country they drive from place to place in one of the more than 370 International 2-wheel drive and 4-wheel drive IH TRAVELETTE B-120 pickup trucks. Even with the 4-wheel drive vehicles, the spray teams often find it hard to get from place to place because of the rugged terrain-the swamps of the coastal region or the sandy deserts of the Northeast. In addition to the transportation difficulties, there are problems of educating the people, of getting their support and approval. Rural housewives don't want their homes or furniture sprayed with "poison." Less difficulty is encountered during the sum mer months-June through December-when insects of all sizes and shapes make life miserable. During the winter months, however, these annoyances have been forgotten and many people, rural and city dwellers alike, do not want the inconveniences which are a part of any such operation. To overcome these objections, the doctor in charge of the dis trict, the "educadora" who explains the need for the spray program and its benefits, the boss of each spray team and even the individual members of the team have all become salesmen and diplomats. They have had to find ways to overcome every objection.

Can Brazil eradicate malaria by 1968? That's the date when malariologists feel all 60 species of malaria-carrying mosquitoes will have developed marked immunity to our number one weapon, DDT. More than 3,000 dedicated Brazilians, specially trained and specially equipped men and women, are determined to try. This elite group has begun to advance on a three and one-half million square mile battle field. How successful they are will have a definite bearing on how soon the United States of Brazil fulfills its rich promise.

Pesquisar este blog

LUZERNA